Study Finds Parental Substance Abuse A Factor In Child Abuse

January 12, 1999

Substance abuse is a factor in seven out of 10 confirmed cases of child abuse or neglect, according to a two-year study presented by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The researchers found that:

Reports of child abuse and neglect rose from 1.4 million in 1986 to more than 3 million in 1997.

Substance abuse costs $20 billion a year in child welfare services, lost productivity, health care and law enforcement needs.

The number of child deaths due to abuse and neglect grew from 798 in 1985 to 1,185 in 1996 -- of which nearly 80 percent of the victims were younger than five years.

As many as two-thirds of the deaths are due to substance- abusing parents.

Some 700,000 abused and neglected children spend time in foster care each year and only one in every four children available for adoption is adopted. Eighty-one percent of addicted parents uses alcohol with drugs, according to the report.